Painting by Chinese master fetches record $35 million in Hong Kong

HONG KONG, April 5 (Reuters) - A painting by Chinese artist
Zhang Daqian sold for nearly $35 million at an auction in Hong
Kong on Tuesday, the most one of his works has ever fetched,
underscoring strong demand for quality Chinese art despite an
overall slowdown in the market.

The two-metre (6.5 feet) long scroll inkbrush painting
"Peach Blossom Spring" more than tripled its expected price at a
spring Sotheby's sale to fetch HK$270.7 million ($34.91
million), including the buyer's premium.

Kevin Ching, chief executive of Sotheby's Asia, said the
1982 work was monumental and deserved the valuation.

"The colours are absolutely vibrant, and (it is) ...
probably one of the two or three most important works available
now in private hands," Ching told reporters.

Bidders battled in a packed room before the hammer came down
after a tense 50 minutes, making it one of the longest auctions
seen by Sotheby's in recent years. It was the most expensive
Chinese painting sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong.

The winning bid was placed by the Long Museum in Shanghai,
founded by Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian and his wife, Wang Wei, who
have over the past few years bought some of the world's most
expensive Chinese and Western artworks including Modigliani's
1917 "Nu couché" (Reclining Nude) for $170.4 million.

Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) is widely considered one of the
greats of Chinese painting in a prolific career that spanned
stints in Argentina, Brazil, California and Taiwan.

The sale of the impressionistic landscape of peach blossoms
and towering turquoise mountains with a poetic inscription,
comes at a time of sluggish global art sales due to slowing
growth in China, the world's second largest economy, and buyers
growing more selective.
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